This invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the shift operation made in an automatic transmission.
It is the current practice to perform shift control with the use of a shift schedule which specifies a target gear or speed ratio as a function of vehicle speed and throttle angle. The shift schedule is normally designed to provide a good balance of fuel economy and vehicle driving performance. With such a conventional shift control utilizing a single shift schedule, however, it is difficult to reflect the driver's driving inclination on the shift control since the driver's vehicle driving inclination is different from one driver to another.
For example, Japanese Patent Kokai Nos. 6-241304, 6-48225 and 6-221414 disclose a shift control apparatus arranged to perform shift control with a selected one of normal and power shift schedules. The power shift schedule is selected to attach a greater importance to the vehicle driving performance than the normal shift schedule when the speed of operation of the accelerator exceeds a reference value at a low vehicle speed. Since the reference value is a fixed value, however, the shift control cannot match the driver's individual vehicle driving inclination.